The Excruciating VISA Experience - I

Sometime in January 2007, I got a slight hint from my manager that I might be travelling to US soon for a month or so. I wasnt really too excited bcoz there had been similar situations in the past where I was promised a US trip, but nothing got materialised eventually. But then in mid February, the appointment with US Consulate was confirmed.

I had to travel to Chennai, a day prior to my appointment day. I wanted to relax before I go to the Consulate the next day. I was put up in a hotel which is supposedly at a walkable distance from the US Consulate. That night, I thought I would walk up to the Consulate and see the place. After walking for nearly 15 mins and realizing that it is still 5-10 mins away, I gave up and returned to the hotel. I am still trying to figure out what 'walkable' meant.

The next day morning, I thought I would visit the beach and took an auto at 6:30 AM in the morning. The autowallah charged me something like 100 bucks for what is a 2-3 km distance but I had no other option. But I didnt really feel bad for that becoz the Chennai beach was really amazing. I have faint memories of seeing a beach in Vizag when I was eight years old but after that, I havent really got a chance to visit any beach. So, I liked the view of the Chennai beach early in the morning very much.

I started for the Consulate later that day and reached there a good 30 mins before my appointment. At that point I didnt know that the whole process is going to take more than 2 hours. There are different queues you need to stand in, one for the application screening, next one for finger printing and the final one for the actual interview. After spending nearly 2 hours in the application screening and finger printing queues, I was put in the queue for the actual interview.

Each of the first few members in the queue will be put into separate queues each leading to one of the interview counters. I was put in a queue of a middle aged fat lady who was tough on all the applicants. 4 out of the 5 applicants before me got rejected by her. With a bit of hesitation, I walked upto the counter, when my turn came. I greeted her and she started asking some basic questions. Working for Amazon, I felt like a large than life character and thought that getting a VISA is not an issue at all for me. But the moment she found a minor error in the documentation, she rejected me outright. I tried to convince her but it was of no use. I cursed that lady and went back to the hotel in dejection.

The next few days I had to tell a lot of ppl in my office that my VISA got rejected and my trip to US would be delayed. Let me tell you, its not easy to tell people that you have been rejected even when there is no fault of yours in the whole process. I was so pissed off with myself and the US Consulate that I even vowed not to visit US at all.